Complexion
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: Being surrounded by humans leaves Acxa feeling insecure about her Galra heritage. Veronica tries to remedy this.


Acxa looks at her hands and she can't help but compare them to Veronica's and Ina's. She can't help but compare them to Kinkade's. And she wishes that she has a complexion like one of theirs as opposed to the blue hue that her skin took on. She touches her ears, runs her fingers over the generous length of them. They look nothing like Nadia's nor James'.

Suddenly she doesn't like them.

She knows that she shouldn't, but she wishes she looked like them.

Maybe if she did, they would talk to her with more ease. Maybe they wouldn't look at her so strangely and for such an unnervingly look time. They weren't unkind to her by any means, but things were always so tense and uncomfortable.

She doesn't know how to talk to them.

She is anxious to try.

She wants to terribly to be human. That would make things easier. She wraps her arms around herself and tries to think about something else. But the only things to think of were parting ways with Zethird and Ezor, the upcoming war, and how horribly she missed Lotor. Lotor before the quintessence took its tantalizing hold. She missed having friends, having outcasts like herself.

Now she was alone. Alone and feeling horribly insecure.

She buries herself in clothes; in full body jumpsuits and high boots, and gloves—gloves the hide slight points her fingers come to. But she can't hide her face. If only she had a hood to draw up. She brushes her hair over her ears. Mostly she can conceal them. But she still doesn't want to leave her room.

Just as little, she wants to answer the knock that befalls her door.

She ignores the knocking, but the person won't seem to retreat. So she hesitantly parts the door.

"Can I come in?"

She only opens the door the rest of the way because it is Veronica. The woman sits down next to her on the bed.

"I hope that my friends haven't scared you off already. Ina can be a little blunt and Nadia can be a trip sometimes."

"A trip?" Acxa tilts her head.

Veronica laughed.

"Earth slang for, a wild ride."

She is still confused.

"An adventure." Veronica clarifies again. "A very interesting, but also really fun person."

Acxa nods. "I don't mind them." But she still prefers to be alone where she isn't quite as ashamed of her Galara lineage.

Veronica takes Acxa's hand and holds it up with a laugh, "it's hot in here, what are you wearing gloves for?"

"I always wear them." She replies, her face flushing some. Apparently, it was just as awkward to wear gloves as it was to have blue skin and little claws. Before she can pull her hand away, Veronica pulls the glove off. She tugs at the other too.

"Come have dinner with us." She offers with a smile.

"So they can talk about how I'm making things awkward again."

"You guys just have to get used to each other." Veronica smiles, she ruffles Acxa's hair, uncovering her ears. "Come on, before Coran takes all of the good stuff."

Acxa gives a slight smile at the name. Coran has always been friendly to her. "He can have it if he wants. I don't know the difference between good Earth food and bad."

"You'll know when you eat it." Veronica laughs, "so let's save you that awful experience."

Acxa reaches for her gloves.

"You don't need those." Veronica says. "No one minds the blue skin, you know."

Acxa poises her tongue to speak.

"And your ears aren't the problem either. You just need to learn to communicate with humans better is all." She adds with a snicker, "I mean there's this one guy who looks like he's part dog, everyone loves him."

Acxa sets her hands in her lap and stares at them again. She still isn't convinced that her appearance has nothing to do with everyone's aversion to her. Her head dips some and her face falls. "I wish I looked like you."

Veronica takes off her glasses and puts them on Acxa. She grins at her work. "There, you're one step closer."

"They make me dizzy."

"They make you look cute." She removes them from Acxa's face once more and the vertigo passes. "Anyways, you don't need to look like me, or any of them. You need to look like you." She takes Acxa's hand. "Now let's hurry, I'd imagine that Coran has already taken most of the good stuff!"

Reluctantly Acxa stands, she looks longingly at the gloves, but decides that, like everything else, she should step out of her comfort zone and face things as a Galra warrior should. The trek down the hall seems all too long and makes what she is about to do, even more jarring.

She listens to Veronica talk, listing off the names of her other friends and a few topics that they are into. Acxa isn't particularly familiar with any of them and she comments so.

"Then just let them talk your ears of about them, people like talking about their interests." Veronica suggests. "Especially their favorite TV shows."

Acxa nods. "I'll try."

She follows Veronica, quietly through the food line and takes her meal suggestions. She hasn't gotten much of a chance to explore the selection so she will just have to take her word for it.

"And if anyone tells you that pineapple belongs on pizza, it absolutely does not."

"I'll have to remember that" Acxa nods.

"Now that's just a cruel lie, Roni." Nadia pouts. To Acxa she whispers, "it totally does belong on pizza."

She doesn't know whose side she should take so she lets the table debate. Nadia and James firmly believe that this pineapple stuff belongs on whatever pizza is. Veronica, Kinkade, and Ina begged to differ. So Acxa decides to level the playing field and declares that pineapple on pizza sounds pretty good.

"Galras are weird, man." Kinkade remarks.

"Actually, I think that that's one of the most normal things she has said." James shrugs.

Acxa blushes again.

"You're doing great." Veronica mutters to her.

"They think I'm weird." She says out loud, matter of factly.

Veronica winces and Acxa regrets having making any note at all.

"A little bit." Nadia admits. "But you're the good kind of weird. Ya know?"

She did not. She has been under the impression that there was only one kind of weird. And its context was never good. So she remains quiet and tries what Veronica called, a cupcake.

"See, she learns fast." Nadia points out. "Everybody knows that desert is the best part. It's like ingrained in the minds of every sentient being."

Acxa smiles to herself, she doesn't exactly understand what she has done right, but she has accomplished something. For the first time in a while she feels like she might fit in somewhere. At the very least she has found a group that will accept her oddities for what they are.

"She's just precious, isn't she?" Veronica asks.

Ina nods, "very precious."

She jabs her fork into another food item, if she recalls correctly, Veronica had called it a mushroom. As soon as it hits her tongue, her face bunches up in disgust. "I thought that you said these tasted good!"

"They do!" Veronica replies.

Acxa shakes her head. "Mushrooms taste like moldy food goo."

"You've eaten moldy food goo?!" Kinkade leans in.

"Food goo gets moldy?" Ina asked.

"I didn't realize it was that old." Acxa shrugs. "Anyways, the point is, you have lied to me." She takes care to make sure she _doesn't_ say it with a straight face. She thinks that she is catching onto Earth humor.

"They're good! See, I'm eating them!" Veronica mutters through a mouthful of mushrooms.

"They are bad, like Honerva. And your brother's shower singing."

Veronica practically spits the mushrooms out. "You have to wait until my mouth is empty to say things like that!" She laughs. "Oh man, I'm gonna tell him you said that." She wipes a tear from her eye.

She can observe that she has made James and Nadia laugh too while Kinkade grins to himself. Ina is the only one who doesn't laugh. Veronica slings an arm around her and she gives a slight jolt. "See, I told you that they'd like you."

And Acxa's face brightens, because things finally different for her. Things are finally light and cheerful.


End file.
